Sermon Tone Analysis

If you have your bibles today please open them up to John chapter 8 today.

I have titled todays message, “Am I a Child of Abraham” Its fitting today that I preach a message about being someone’s child.

Because if you didn’t know we are all the child of someone.

Some of our mom’s may be in attendance today, some may no longer be with us, some may not know our mom’s personally, but we all have something in common, we all have a mom.

Jesus in the text today gets in a conversation that leads us to answer Am I a Child of Abraham?

Before we read todays text I want us to pray for this time in God’s word…

Powerful Interaction today indeed.

For those taking notes or following along in your bulletin, the main point I have for you is this.

Anyone can become a Child of Abraham if they receive the Word of Christ.

Meaning if you have your faith in Christ and him alone you can become a child of Abraham, and why does that matter?

Because only children of Abraham are saved, and to become a Child of Abraham you must believe in Christ.

If you are Christ’s then you are a fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham by God himself.

So if you are a child of Abraham what does that mean for them in the text, and us today?

I believe the text teaches us four things about being a child of Abraham.

The first is this..

Children of Abraham are set free.

In verse 31 Jesus was talking to the Jews, and he tells them If you abide in my Word, you are my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And like the typical Jews they say we have never been enslaved to anyone, even though that is not the case.

They had been slaves in their past to the Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Syria, Rome, but most notable they are slaves to their own sin.

Slaves to the world, and they for themselves dont understand they are slaves of the sin.

They don’t get how Jesus is telling them.

They say how is it that you say, you will become free?

But Jesus explains to them they are slaves because they make it a practice of sinning.

And because they make it a practice of sin they are a slave of sin.

Even though they don’t quite realize it.

1 John 3 is a good place that explains what being a slave to sin looks like.

Three verses stand out.

Making a practice of sin shows that you may not have not been born of God.

This doesn’t mean a sin will send you to hell, but if you continue to make a practice of sin, over and over again are you really born again?, only you and God know that answer.

But the evidence leans more into the fact you are not.

The truth is when you are not in Christ you are a slave to sin.

Listen to one man… Theologians have showed that even after the fall, that power of making choices remained intact.

Fallen human beings are not robots or puppets.

They still have minds that think, wills that make choices, and hearts that have affections.

So they think they’re free.

But Jesus says we are not really free.

We are like slaves on a galley.

We still have minds, wills, and hearts, but the chains of our slavery limit our choices.

When Jesus describes the natural human condition, He says: “By nature you’re slaves.

You’re slaves to your own wicked desires, your own wicked impulses.

Nobody else is forcing you to commit the sins you commit; you sin because you’re a slave to sin.”

The pagan believes that his will is unaffected by the fall, but Christianity teaches that by nature we have sinful and corrupt natures that keep us in moral bondage.

Everyone who is outside of Christ falls under the words I just read.

If you are not in Christ you are a slave to sin, you are not truly free unless you are in Christ.

Jesus himself tells them they can be set free in verse 35-36.

John 8:35-36

Jesus is telling them.

You realize a slave does not stay in the house forever, he can be sold, and he doesn’t have the same rights the son has.

He could die as a slave, and will never get the same rights the son has who always remains the son , but if the son sets you free you are free.

No longer a slave, and Jesus came to make those who were enslaved to Sin’s free.

A few verses help us illustrate what that looks like…

Jesus frees you from the penalty of death.

Christ dies so we dont have to go back into slavery.

One More..

Not only do we become free from sin, but we becomes sons, and heirs of God if we are in Christ.

Once slaves, now sons, and set free!

Children of Abraham are set free.

A Second point this morning is this..

Children of Abraham are not children of the devil.

Jesus in the text acknowledges that they are physical children of Abraham, but not spiritual children of Abraham.

They act is such a way that proves that they really are not children of Abraham.

And Jesus tells them this very thing.

Jesus accuses them of acting improperly to him, going so far to say they are trying to kill him.

Because of what he says, and claims to be..

As physical children of Abraham they should have believed in Christ, because he was from the Father, and with the Father, but in their flesh they did not believe, because they were a slave to sin.

They even told Jesus that Abraham is our Father, told them we have the linage, that they claimed Jesus did not himself have.

Yet Jesus himself told them you are not from Abraham, because you don’t even do the works Abraham does.

How can you claim to be of him when you don’t even for yourself believe like he does.

Abraham believed in Christ before Christ came and this is what Jesus is trying to tell them.

The work that Abraham did that make him special was not some sort of works, it was that Abraham believed God, and believed in the promises that God gave him.

His righteousness came from belief.

Notice what a few scriptures say…

And in Romans we see the promise unfolded that Abraham believed in.

It says…

So the physical Children of Abraham were called to believe in Christ, yet in there sin, and in their flesh they themselves proved they were not like Abraham who they claimed was their father, rather they were more like their true father the devil.

And they proved that they were like the devil by their own actions, and lack of belief.

There own actions accused Jesus of being lier, and born of Sexually Immorality( It had been rumored that Joseph was not the real father of Jesus).

And most notably their actions proved that they did not believe in Christ and his word.

So Jesus tells them not only are you not children of Abraham because you don’t believe, you are children of the Devil.

There is no middle ground with Jesus.

And your will is to do evil, to do what Satan asks.

He tells them Satan has been a murdering from the beginning.

You can look at this two ways, One he murdered the covenant between Adam and Eve and God by tempting them to sin, or that the first recorded sin outside the fall was the Murder of Cain killing Abel.

And sin is the root of wanting to kill.

Sin produces death..

And Satan does not have any truth in him.

None what so ever, He is the Father of Lies he is a liar.

its in his character to lie, and the Jews are of him, and those who are not in Christ are as well.

If you remember the quote from earlier those who are not free are a slave to sin.

And the reason they don’t believe in the truth is because they belong to him who in him no truth dwells.

That statement may seem harsh, but the reality is when you look at those interacting with Jesus in a hostile way they are more like the Devil than they are someone who follows Jesus.

The world today and especially this past week shows more and more those who do not belong to Christ love false truths more than than truth.

Its saddens me but the a verses like verse 44 and 45 prove what Jesus is saying is true.

The devil being the great accuser can’t accuse Jesus of sin, and neither can they at least not credibly

If you are a child of Abraham you are going to hear his voice, and if you don’t today you belong to the evil one the devil, and not Christ.

But Children of Abraham are set free, and children of Abraham are not children of the devil.

Third point today is this..

Children of Abraham live forever.

After Jesus accuses them of being of the Devil, he is accused of being a Samaritan maybe because of the rumor his father is not really his father or maybe because of the virgin birth teaching, maybe they want to bring to light that Jesus maybe not a true jew like themselves, even though they are wrong.

Not only that they accuse him of having a demon.